The Path of the Mind
Upon waking up after a restful sleep, Nano decides that he wants to go see Makihel at the University of Magic. Leran wanted to come with him, so the two went down stairs to have a little breakfast before they left. Once they arrived at the dining hall, the two were greeted by a mass of people swarming the food. Lady Marn explained that they were important people from other kingdoms on visit here. Leran started to show signs of a phobia of large groups of people, having a panic attack she ran out of the hall. One of the kitchen staff gave Nano a sack so that he could fill it with food for later. As Nano and Leran leave the castle and reach the gates of the city, Nano overhears two guards talking about the fire the other night. The family of that house hasn't been seen since the fire, and no bodies were found in the ruins either. A little while later, the two arrive in the deserted Colai Village... Thinking it odd not to see anyone within his two visits here, Nano decides to investigate. The first house he checks was a small shack to his left. When he opened the door, he was greeted by a black void and a loud shriek from inside. This had made Leran temporarily deaf. The next house he checked, was of a similar situation. However it was a multicolored, chaotic void with no sound at all. He then checked the third house, it was relatively normal but was completely warped and twisted on the inside... There also appeared to be an Anti-Magic Zone inside which nullified any magic Nano has while he was inside. There was a set of stairs going down to a basement, but it was too dark to see anything. Giving up on the investigation for now, Nano and Leran headed for the gate to University Island. Once they arrived on the island, they are greeted by a strange sight. The University was surrounded by a purplish hued field. Nano and Leran managed to pass through... But Leran suddenly became stuck in time, unmoving, but unharmed. Unable to free her from the spot, Nano pressed on. He walks around outside, checking on all the students who were frozen in time. None of them seemed to have been aware, so it must have happened instantaneously. Nano eventually enters the university and explores the first floor of the eastern wing. Unfortunately he discovered nothing. When he started back towards the Lobby, he heard the sound of footsteps. Following the sound of the footsteps, he discovers a female student walking down the stairs slowly. She sees Nano and starts to slowly approach him with a hungry look on her face. Nano, in an attempt to escape the girl, ran down the eastern hall only to have cornered himself. The girl soon catches up. When he tries to push her out of the way, she ends up being stronger than he expected. She pushes Nano to the ground and jumps on top of him... She looked like she was about rape Nano, but then he saw a ghostly creature wrapped around her with his monocle. It attempted to slither onto him, but Nano uses Flaming Touch on it and the creature dies. This seemed to free the girl, but she was unconscious and extremely cold. Nano manages to warm the girl up with his Flaming Touch spell, and she introduces herself as Regina. She was in a state of confusion, possibly still under the influence of that creature. Silvas explains that these creatures were of the Unborn, and that they possess people in order to make them copulate so that they can be born into the world. Eventually the two continue to search through the University. They soon encounter five male students who were under the influence of of the Unborn. After a short scuffle, Nano manages to free them. After Nano warms them up, Silvas suggests that Regina escapes with the other students. Nano then continued his exploration, returning to the lobby. This is where he finds Leran who has been possessed by the Unborn. The creature bites him before he was able to deal with it. Freeing Leran from her possession, he finds that she is burning up. A completely opposite effect from when the demons were possessed. Regina soon meets up with Nano and tells him that if she gets her spell book, that she can cover Leran with ice. Eventually the two make it to Regina's classroom and retrieves her spellbook. There she covers the burning Leran with a coffin of ice to cool her down. After awhile, Nano asks Regina if she knew anything about this field. She gets an idea of who is behind it and the leaves the classroom. Nano follows her to a classroom where this little demon girl was frozen in time, in the middle of casting a spell. In front of her was a evil looking rune. With Regina's suggestion, he destroys the rune and the magic field collapses. The little girl's spell back fired, throwing her into the wall and seriously hurting her. Nano manages to heal her after that. The girl introduces herself as Lisallia von Arvorgate, but Lisa for short. She was certainly quite young to have such control over time magic. As the three return to the classroom where Leran was, Lisa mentions that she received the rune from a man in red, which was presumably Garjulaz. When they arrive at the classroom, Regina releases her spell over Leran who no longer is feverish. When Leran wakes up she is confused and explains what she was doing to Nano as a nightmare, not realizing that it actually happened. After a short lunch break, Nano and Leran join in with Makihel's class and listened to him lecture about the elements of magic. Shortly after, Makihel had Nano demonstrate Meta Magic for the class. Nano was certainly popular among the students, especially the girls. After class, Makihel took the two to one of the labs where the petrified Uria was waiting for them. He then poured a pink solution onto her, which ate away the stone... And her clothes. It was a happy reunion, if not an awkward one. Once he was done, Makihel handed Nano a scroll and asked him to read it while focusing on a training dummy on the other side of the room. When he attempted to do so, not only did he not understand the writing, but a magic circle formed under him and then exploded. It would seem Nano is not able to use conventional magic. Discouraged, Nano asks Makihel if there was anything else he could learn. To which he replied that he should expand his mind by learning new things. Makihel then suggested that Nano should go to the university library and read some books. But before he did that, Leran wanted to go outside for a bit. After a small, tender moment with Leran, Garjulaz appears before them, with the intention to kill Leran. Ready to defend her, Nano attempts to contract the being inside the Purple Spellstone. Doing so, he was then able to call forth Rashjari, the guardian of thunder. Rashjari was able to knock Garjulaz about for a little while, but was absolutely no match for him. The dragon quickly dispatches the guardian in a single strike. He then knocks Nano out of the way and destroys his summoned clones. Garjulaz grabs Leran by her shirt, but Nano tells her to fight and so she did with amazing speed... However it wasn't enough as Garjulaz knocks her to the ground and stabs her in the chest with his evil sword. After struggling for a bit, Leran dies. Being victorious in his mission, the evil dragon departs. Distraught by the death of his adopted daughter, Nano is greeted by a serene voice. The voice asked if he wanted to change things. Naturally Nano agrees and walks through a portal that opened before him. He was then located on a small island with white, red roofed house at the end of a cliff. Under a large shady oak, an elderly farmer awaited him. After an exchange of words, the farm began to attack. However, once Nano made his intent not to kill the man clear, the farmer stopped. Apparently he had passed some kind of test. The man disappeared, leaving Nano free to enter the house ahead of him. Inside he meets this small angelic spirit known as Aura. However she called him by a different name, one that was replaced by a static sound every time it was uttered. Once he had collected her, Nano finds himself back before the fallen Leran. There he called forth Aura to do something for her. After the grand display of a miracle, Leran was brought back to life. After long emotional moment, Cat returns and congratulates Nano on the discovery of a shard of his soul. She then had Nano promise that he'd find another shard of his soul before he came for her. The four then returned to the university to go to the library so that Nano could study any information regarding Meta Magic. After reading a few books, Nano learns a little more about Meta Magic. However a lot of it was stuff he already knew. Curious about Dragons, he asked Lisa if there were any books on the subject. Lisa said there wasn't, but she told him what she knew about Dragons. Nano learns of a good natured dragon that lived in the hills southeast of Demonholme City, but she was killed by the Rakashasa. Soon night fell again as Kalcoria arrives in the node again. Not wanting to travel in the darkness, Nano asks if they could stay at the University. Lisa then shows them to her secret home deep in the University basement. Nano learns that Lisa has been living alone since her parents died, so he offers to take her in once he gets Leran's and Nilmurasi's permission. Then the group spends the night in Lisa's hideout.